Confucian Values and Democracy in South Korea

This paper investigates the influence of cultural tradition on democracy in South Korea, with a particular focus on Confucian values. Confucian values comprise a positive attitude towards worldly affairs, a life-style of sustained discipline and self-cultivation, respect for authority, and familial collectivism. The data relies on a national survey conducted in 2000. Survey analyses served to provide empirical evidence that previous speculative debates lacked. The evidence shows that Confucian tradition exerts no effect on popular support for political democracy but has a negative impact on support for democracy in social relations. However, the authoritarian effect of Confucian values weakens in the presence of other social forces such as urbanization and Christianity. Protestant belief and growing up in an urban area diminish the negative effects of Confucianism. This suggests that Confucianism is adapted to new social trends and that the relationship between tradition and modernity is not one of antithesis, but of mutual accommodation.